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How should we think about bad things that happen in the world? For example what is happening in Afghanistan right now, or what happened in the holocaust. I can understand how many seemingly negative experiences in life (such as illness, grief over a loved one’s passing, etc) can lead a person to greater spiritual awareness…. but how can we possibly interpret a horrendous event like a murderous regime taking over as being a positive step toward spiritual development? Maybe it would help the rest of the world reflect, but what about the victims? I’m confused how to reconcile this. Is the issue one of misunderstanding what death is?
On the other hand, if someone does not have any struggle in their life (privileged, wealthy, healthy, etc) is it possible for them to develop spiritually? Is suffering necessary in order to gain spiritual understanding? if so, how much suffering?
Hi Megan,
We need to relate to everything as coming from the Creator. This is called “there is none else besides Him”. Meaning that the Creator is the singular source behind EVERYTHING. All of our thoughts, desires, all of the life events, everything comes from Him.
But we learn that the Creator is the “good that does good”, meaning a pure quality of love and bestowal. So every single moment He should be sending us nothing but goodness. Why then don’t we sense this goodness? Why do we see so many atrocities in the world? It’s because we’re opposite to Him. Our opposite egoistic nature inverts this goodness into something bad. It’s like multiplying numbers: a positive times a negative, equals negative.
So as long as we remain within this egoistic nature, we will continue to suffer and we will continue to see others suffering more and more in life. But if we correct our nature to be similar to the Creator’s nature, we will reveal the true reality in which only goodness exists. And our previous egoistic state will appear as nothing more than a dream.
We’ll learn more about this in the upcoming lessons, in the meantime check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2011/06/how-can-we-justify-the-creator/
Albert @ KabU
My question concerns the dynamics of giving and receiving. I think I understand that even if I had the capacity to bestow to the Creator this would be impossible since the Creator is only a Will to Bestow and so has no Kli to receive anything. However, my friend does have a Kli to receive because my friend, like me, is nothing but a Will to Receive. So, were it somehow possible, by some miracle, that could actually have the intention to Bestow (even while I remain a Will to Receive) could I confer my intention to Bestow upon my friend in lieu of the Creator? Does my friend become a kind of Receiver in place of the Creator cannot receive?
Or, is it the case that, even though the Creator is always already a Will to Bestow, the Creator can create a Kli for Himself through an intention to receive. In other words, does the Creator also have a “masoch” through which he can intend to receive, even though His Nature is to Bestow? Or is all of the Creator’s receiving done through the Kli of my friend by proxy?
Hi Seraphim,
Yes, you are correct in what you stated in the first paragraph. The Creator does not have any vessels of reception. We bestow to Him by bestowing to other people. It’s like a mother whose only concern in life is her children. If we want to do something nice for the mother, we can do something nice for her children, and through that, we will make the mother happy. This is called going “from the love of the created beings, to the love of the Creator”.
Keep in mind that we practice this primarily within this safe environment, this spiritual lab that we call the Kabbalistic group. We’ll learn how to do this practically in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Tatjana,
This will make more sense in the next semester when we learn the concept of “there is none else besides Him”. None else besides Him means that the entire world is nothing more than a game between a person and the Creator. That there is a singular benevolent force behind EVERYTHING, behind all of the different people, events, thoughts, and desires that we come across.
We’ll learn this in depth in the next semester, but in the meantime, check out this blog post from Rav Laitman: http://laitman.com/2017/12/there-is-none-else-besides-him/
Albert @ KabU
How exactly is this world a reflection of me? Is it not impossible to answer apart from my own experience? How can we share events and happenings as different shattered parts of one initial being, do we share some qualities and not others? In what way are we different? Is this why we must consider every other person we see in this world as completely corrected, and in what ways I see them as not it is myself that is not? Does the number of people I see in the world with a spiritual inclination correspond to the desires in my heart with a spiritual constitution? Have I singularly held back the world from eternal bliss with the inclinations of my desire to receive all this time?
Hi Timothy, great questions!
The world is a reflection of my egoistic state. Meaning that I don’t experience some objective reality, but I experience something through the lens of my ego. Furthermore, to the extent that I correct this ego, to that extent the external reality will change as well. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as being dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses (correct myself) then I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
But what about the other people? Do they exist or not? Essentially all that exists is one soul and we are all parts of it, like cells within a single body.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2012/05/from-multiplicity-to-unity/
As for correcting myself vs correcting others, when I do my spiritual work, I correct MY part that is found within everyone. So I don’t actually correct the others and I don’t do the spiritual work instead of the others. For more details, see my replies #57588 & #58059 to Maria below.
Albert @ KabU
I wanna khnow the experience of friends the feeling of first connection.do u feel it in mind or heart ? You feel it with open eyes.dream it when sleeping.hear something?
Hi Ali,
Each person is unique and feels the world through his/her uniqueness. As such, it’s impossible to compare how one person feels spirituality with another. We simply don’t have the tools to compare feelings. But we can say in general that everything that we feel, stems from our desires. When our desires are uncorrected, egoistic, then we feel this world. If we correct the desire, for it to operate in the direction of bestowal, within that corrected desire, we feel spirituality.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2017/05/what-is-the-soul-4/
Albert @ KabU
Ok. correcting my desires will take me back to Adam Ha Rishon, and even though i think Torah/Mitzvot is different from kabbalistic aproach, since they are developing in different planes (material / spiritual), does not the spiritual correction, affect the material concious, and by inertia, correct our attitudes to life and those sorrounding us? isnt there a real material change as a result of the spiritual correction?.
Thank you.
Hi Ricardo,
Yes, you can say that the spiritual correction affects the corporeal world. This follows what we learned in the lesson on the perception of reality, that the entire external world is nothing more than a reflection of our inner egoistic state. So when I correct myself, the external world will appear corrected as well. It’s like I have these dirty glasses through which I see the whole world as dirty. The moment I clean my own glasses, I’ll look at the same world, but now it’s clean and perfect.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details:Â https://laitman.com/2014/04/in-neutral-gear/
Albert @ KabU
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